From the beginning of the year, i never knew how much i would grow and learn as a writer. I never really knew how to identify the main problems in my writing or how to fix them and make them better. Throughout this year i have learned a great deal on how to improve .
When I first got to VMI, I knew that i was an average writer that was not that good and could us a lot of improvement. Knowing that, everything i learned here so far has helped me become a little better and make me more confident in myself as a writer and let me be able to ask for criticism when needed so that i may correct myself to improve. Before i came here, i just wrote an essay and turned it in, giving no thought to wether or not it was good or not because i got good grades on them. The teachers never really were harsh graders as long as you stayed on topic. they did not ask for every little detail so I learned more of a minimalistic type of writing and only putting in what was needed to be said rather than dragging out something to 3 pages that can be summed up in 1. I would state the important facts and leave out the filling basically. I mainly only wrote for what was needed to understand what i was writing and thought that if you give the filling, they it might bore the reader.
That is the main thing that i still struggle with no matter what. It is difficult for me to lengthen something that i can say in short paragraphs to be pages of info. My mind works on he basics of writing, having what you need to know without actually having to go into long detail about it unless it is something that actually interests me greatly and i want to talk more on that topic. If it is for a topic that i don’t particularly care for, I will stick to a minimalist form.
One of the very first things that i learned in the class is that not every great author had great first drafts. many had really bad first drafts and maybe second drafts. what they did to improve on these is they got help from peers and had people look at them with fresh eyes so they could maybe see what they were doing wrong. Even they needed help learning from their mistakes and took that advice and because great at what they loved to do. This lifted the burden of me realizing the fact that even the greatest writers get stuff wrong and have to reach out for help sometimes. It lets me know that it is okay for me to do the same and not be ashamed of my first drafts, so that i may better myself and write better in the long wrong.